H.S. LACROSSE: BC High aiming high again

Despite the loss of 13 seniors from last year's squad, BC High expects another successful campaign.

Jay N. Miller, For The Patriot Ledger

BOSTON – Last spring’s BC High lacrosse team had a dazzling season, advancing to the Division 1 State Championship game, where it came up just a little short against Lincoln-Sudbury, losing 10-8.

But a baker’s dozen players from that team graduated, including such Eagle stalwarts as scoring machine AJ Kucinski, midfielder Oskar Djusberg, defender Matt Haggerty, and goalkeeper Mike Haggan. Such turnover is common in high school sports, but BC High’s Class of 2016 was exceptionally talented on the lacrosse field, and with the reputation that last year’s 19-4 season burnished, every opponent this year will be pointing towards their Eagles game.

There’s a host of eager young players able and willing to take over the reins, but with the Eagles’ typically rugged schedule, they won’t have any spare time to ease in to the season. In fact, next week, BC High opens its season with a trio of formidable foes, hosting Needham on Tuesday, visiting St. John’s Prep in Danvers on Thursday, and returning home to face Longmeadow on Saturday.

“I don’t think we’ll sneak up on anyone,” said Eagles coach Steve Lydon before a film session Monday. “Our own league, the Catholic Conference, is extremely challenging, and our non-league schedule is even tougher than before. We know a lot of guys circle us on their schedule, and whether they’re supposed to beat us or not, we will get their best game. We do know that we have enough talent to win games, but that’s not what gets it done – hard work and effort every time out is what we’re going to need, the same as every year.”

This season’s non-league Eagles foes include Reading, which was the North Sectional runner-up last year, as well as New Hampshire’s Bishop Guertin, and Rhode Island’s perennial power LaSalle Academy.

It’s still hard to look at this year’s team without thinking of all the skills they’ve got to replace.

“Thirteen seniors is a lot of kids, but I believe the couple years before, we graduated 12 or 14,” said Lydon. “It’s the same general numbers and it’s a testament to the program, where we always have such a strong JV team and such a great coaching staff that develops them. Every year we seem to come up with a bunch of young guys to draw on, to fill those holes.

“Losing AJ was tough, our all-time leading scorer – now lighting it up at Middlebury,” said Lydon. “He had also been our offensive quarterback the past few years, our definite go-to-guy. But we lost a lot of core guys, like Oskar in the midfield, Mike Haggan in net, and Matt Haggerty on defense. All of four of them will be sorely missed, and the impact hits all four levels of our team. But we have good leadership on this year’s team, and that will be huge. AJ and Oskar were technically our captains and leaders last year, but in truth, we had eight or ten kids who could’ve also had the title. It’s more about stepping up at the right time and being a leader than it is about having a title.”

Ironically, this spring’s squad has seen a lower than usual number of players trying out for the squad, a fact that Lydon feels is just a byproduct of the kids knowing how solid the talent level is. All of the current Eagle candidates are experienced lacrosse players with well-developed skills, so the prospects for a walk-on, or a kid from another sport who wants to try lacrosse, are much more remote than at many schools.

“We graduated some important leaders, no doubt,” said senior Patrick Jennings. “But we are returning a lot of leaders too. We know we need more kids to step up, and we believe they will. We also know that we have to work hard, and what we have to do to win, thanks to that experience from last year.”

“We’re looking at it like trying to create our own season, and start fresh,” said senior Jack Walsh. “We lost a bunch of great players, and we all know that. But we want the team’s tradition to continue. Everyone can contribute what they can: we don’t have to worry about replacing AJ and Oskar’s scoring totals, just being yourself and doing as much as you can.”

“It is definitely tough to replace AJ’s scoring numbers,” Jennings agreed. “But where he was such an unbelievable player, we now have six humble players returning, and if the six of us work hard enough and work as a team, I really think we’ll make some noise.”

The returning Eagles certainly have some unique big game experience, and even if some of those 2016 seniors got most of the ink last year, the underclassmen were also in all those games, and are unlikely to be cowed by anything they see this year. There aren’t many players in the state, after all, who can say they’ve battled in a state final.

“We know what we have to do to get back there,” said Walsh. “We’re excited to get started on doing just that.”

Lydon also feels that as the seasons have gone along, players in the BC High program have grown more accustomed to the style of play he favors, and it has all become second nature, even to players coming up from the junior varsity.

“I think over the past three years our overall level of play has improved,” said Lydon. “We have less guys coming out hoping to make the team, and more guys simply expected to play. And over the past couple years, they all know how I like to coach, how I want them to play, and so they come in with more of a leg up on what we’re trying to accomplish.

“Our system is pretty straightforward, and nothing tricky,” Lydon added. “But guys who’ve played it, and had those repetitions in practice and games, come in ready to go full speed right away, and that has been helpful. We just had our first scrimmage, with Governor’s Academy, and I think all of our guys were more prepared to jump into a game than at any previous time. We still have some younger guys with a ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ look, which is expected, but overall I think there was much less running around, and much more understanding of what we’re trying to do. I like the way our younger kids are stepping in and filling those holes.”